“It’s easy to be mindful in a cave, but what I drop you in the middle of New York city? Can you be mindful in action?” –Rodney King

Have you ever read a book on meditation or mindfulness, or gone on a retreat or seminar and felt very inspired, calm and present in the moment. But when you get back to the heat of your real life, it all goes out the window?

Have you ever thought that mindfulness and meditation sounds nice in theory… but you can’t see how it can help you with your deepest pains and fears?

If you know what I mean, please listen in for practical, real life strategies to apply mindfulness to your life today. Mindfulness is the key to performance in every way.

Rodney King is an author, martial artist, coach and entrepreneur. In this 60 minute conversation we get deep into the true power of mindfulness. We take the concept of mindfulness away from the bland representation it gets in mainstream media, and illustrate how it is the most powerful practice out there. Mindfulness is about your response in the heat of battle of every day life.

And Rodney knows a thing or two about the heat of battle. Growing up in government housing in a rough area of Johannesburg, in a violent environment with no father figure and an alcoholic mother, Rodney “learned early on in life how smart you are is irrelevant. Its about how tough you are”.

He immersed himself in martial arts, a practice that changed his life. He learned what he calls “inner management skills”. But in the early days, he became caught up in the masculine “red road” of fighting, and after finishing up in the military he spent years as a bouncer.

“Most of my life I was the victim… it seemed life was a fight and the only way to win was to fight back.”

“That was the time I was most afraid, most insecure… but I never told anyone that as I had to put on the disguise.”

Fast-forward to today, and Rodney has shaped his life in the most amazing way. He is a very successful entrepreneur, the founder of a global academy of martial arts, Crazy Monkey Defense. He has trained special forces, celebrities, written a book and played a huge role in helping many people understand the true power of martial arts, inner mastery and mindfulness.

He has developed as a warrior, much in the Samurai Warrior aesthetic.

“If you were born into a Samurai family, you were trained for one thing: to go to battle. But they spent an inordinate amount of time on mastering the soft skills…. Why would a warrior culture spend so much time on the soft skills?”

Find out in the interview. Listen in guys and please share this around as it is POTENT information about applied mindfulness, mindfulness in action, real life mindfulness.

Some powerful Mindfulness nuggets we discuss

How to circumvent the stories you tell yourself and live in reality

How to develop soft skills through fighting

Why going to a meditation retreat is not always the best idea

The value of an embodied experience

How to use mindfulness to deal with childhood scars and shame

The role forgiveness plays in evolving as a human

The power of choosing your attitude in any situation

A practical strategy to deal with road-rage

How to deal with fears of heights, spiders, big waves or whatever… using mindfulness

A quick tip to engage your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and recover)

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Author Jiro Taylor

I'm the founder of Flowstate and the host of FlowTribe. I'm on a mission to live in the flow of life and contribute to this beautiful planet we live on.
My work is in helping others achieve sustainable inner growth, and working with CEO's and businesses to optimise meaning, performance and positive impact.
Personally, I find my flow through writing, coaching founders, and playing in the oceans, jungles and forests of the world.